Fahamu Bulletin Archive

Donate to Pambazuka News!

Follow Us

Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa.

Latest titles from Pambazuka Press

African Sexualities

A ReaderSylvia Tamale
A groundbreaking book, accessible but scholarly, by African activists. It uses research, life stories and artistic expression to examine dominant and deviant sexualities, and investigate the intersections between sex, power, masculinities and femininitiesBuy now

Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya

Horace Campbell
In this elegantly written and incisive account, scholar Horace Campbell investigates the political and economic crises of the early twenty-first century through the prism of NATO's intervention in Libya.Buy now

Queer African Reader

Edited by Sokari Ekine, Hakima Abbas A diverse collection of writing from across the continent exploring African LGBTI liberation: identity, tactics for activism, international solidarity, homophobia and global politics, religion and culture, and intersections with social justice movements.
A richness of voices, a multiplicity of discourses, a quiverful of arguments. African queers writing for each other, theorising ourselves, making our ...more
Buy now

China and Angola

A Marriage of Convenience?Edited by Marcus Power, Ana Alves
This book focuses on the increased co-operation between Angola and China and shows that although relations with China might have bolstered regime stability and boosted the international standing of the Angolan government, China is not regarded as a long term strategic partner.Buy now

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

Walter Rodney
Rodney shows how the imperial countries of Europe, and subsequently the US, bear major responsibility for impoverishing Africa. They have been joined in this exploitation by agents or unwitting accomplices both in the North and in Africa.Buy now

Janet Szabo

South African President Jacob Zuma hopes to take South Africa into the new international powerhouse of the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) by building on its flourishing relationship with Brazil, writes Janet Szabo. In this article, she explores the different characteristics and assets the country possesses that make it a bona fide member of this group of emerging powerhouses.

Rajiv Bhatia

Rajiv Bhatia provides a historical overview of India's foreign policy towards the African continent. Reflecting on the successes and failures of this policy thus far, he lays out the political and economic motivations for a policy change and provides suggestions as to how government, business and civil society can work together to raise the relationship to a new level.

Johanna Jansson

Gabon presents fertile ground for Chinese investment in extractive industries, though the development of this relationship is a lengthy process and is much diversified across Gabon and the economy’s main sectors of interest to China, writes Johanna Jansson. Jansson suggests the observer of yet another African economy to come within range of China’s investment radar should take note of the diversity also present within the ranks of Chinese corporate actors, whose level of responsible conduct presents no general trend.

Are dams necessarily a bad thing?

Saliem Fakir

Ever since the World Commission on Dams report, there’s been some reluctance to use hydropower as a source of clean and cheap energy, writes Saliem Fakir. But as the demand for electricity surges across the continent, Fakir asks whether – in the absence of practical, clean alternatives – Africa should reconsider hydro projects to help power its development.

Zhang Ke

Campaign groups remain concerned about the environmental impacts of Ethiopia’s Gibe 3 dam, following the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s approval of a $400 million loan towards its construction. Zhang Ke puts the hydropower project in context.

Michael Otieno and Hayley Herman

Fahamu and Syracuse University recently co-hosted an international conference ‘to assess and deliberate on the nature and future of the pre-eminent phase of Sino-African relations’. Micheal Otieno and Hayley Herman witnessed the discussions, which furthered the ‘important debate on the emerging role of China in global politics and international development’.

Shawn Hattingh

China and India are emerging economic powers rather than the architects of a new world order, writes Shawn Hattingh; there is no overhaul of the existing capitalist order and class-based social divisions imminent. The global power balance is simply widening to include the new elite of China and India in partnership with their American and European counterparts, says Hattingh, but it is still the workers who are being exploited by the same heads of industry.

Sanusha Naidu

Following South African President Zuma’s first official visit to India last week, Sanusha Naidu investigates what kind of ‘strategic partnership’ was being forged between the two countries and who the partners were. Despite Gandhi’s vision for the commerce between India and Africa to be of ‘ideas and services’, this strategic partnership, says Naidu, is ‘really about the business of business is business’.

Adams Bodomo and Grace Ma

In this paper, Adams Bodomo looks at how Africans are received in Yiwu and in Guangzhou, which contains the largest community of Africans in China. Bodomo argues that because of the relatively negative reception of Africans in Guangzhou compared to the more efficient and civil treatment of Africans in Yiwu, Yiwu is fast overtaking Guangzhou as the best place for Africans to thrive in China.

Sanusha Naidu

Chinese investments across Africa require ‘more than just a superficial understanding that China and other actors are going to be panaceas for Africa’s development or merely that they represent the next set of neo-imperialists’, writes Sanusha Naidu. Naidu explores the extent of these investments and suggests that a realistic assessment of where the practical benefits lie for Africa is needed to determine whether such a relationship is in the continent’s advantage.

Sanusha Naidu

The Shanghai Expo, which opened on 30 April, was not only a chance to showcase China's soft power, but also to catapult the country as a global trendsetter and strengthen the world’s fastest growing economy through design, tourism and cultural diplomacy by moving further up the global value chain. Sanusha Naidu explores what African countries seek to get out of their engagement with China within the context of the expo and beyond.

Patrick Wrokpoh

Following a new agreement to enable China Union to mine in Liberia's central region, many Liberians are hopeful that the revitalisation of the country's mining sector will lead to new employment opportunities. This may well be the case, writes Patrick Wrokpoh, provided the Johnson-Sirleaf government shows the same willingness to pursue favourable terms that it has shown in dealing with another mining company, ArcelorMittal.

Hayley Herman and Sanusha Naidu

Four African journalists have taken part in a study tour to Beijing, initiated and conducted by Fahamu’s Emerging Powers in Africa Programme. Hayley Herman and Sanusha Naidu report back on the visit, and invite readers to contribute their voices to a forthcoming newsletter that will provide African perspectives on the emerging powers in Africa.

Saliem Fakir

They go by different names: IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa), BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China). These formations all amount to more or less the same thing: The new 'emerging economies' seeking to redefine relations between themselves and the rest of the world. They are widely seen as new symbols of power in the global arena, writes Saliem Fakier.

Owen Grafham

While the greatest foreign influences on Sudanese youth culture have been predominantly American in recent years, there are signs that the Chinese government is beginning to get in on the act, writes Owen Grafham.

The launch of the China-Africa Joint Research and Exchange Program

Sanusha Naidu

Sanusha Naidu writes about the China-Africa joint research and exchange program that was launched at the end of March by the follow-up committee of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), in partnership with the Institute of West Asian and African Studies (IWAAS) of the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS).

Peter Bosshard

A few years ago, Chinese dam builders and financiers appeared on the global hydropower market with a bang. China Exim Bank and companies such as Sinohydro started to take on large, destructive projects in countries like Sudan and Burma, which had been shunned by the international community. Their emergence threatened to roll back progress regarding human rights and the environment which civil society had achieved over many years. But new evidence suggests that Chinese dam builders and financiers are trying to become good corporate citizens rather than rogue players on the global market, writes Peter Bossard.

Johanna Jansson

Johanna Jansson looks at the implications of Chinese market-driven engagement for the DRC, with a focus on investment in Katanga’s mining sector. Contrary to popular perception, says Jansson, there are no direct links between Chinese government-led engagement with the DRC and the market-seeking activities of private Chinese entrepreneurs in the country. If Chinese investments are to have a positive impact on development in the area, says Jansson, adherence to regulatory frameworks has to be radically improved, both by investors and by Katangese civil servants.

Sanusha Naidu

'How is India’s relationship with Africa different?', asks Sanusha Naidu. She demonstrates that the latest conclave on the India-Africa Project Partnership – during which India emphasised its focus in Africa to be on capacity building, training and private sector development – revealed that African delegates felt that India is more a stakeholder than a shareholder on the continent. But Naidu suggests that Africa needs to critically examine India’s involvement. She concludes that: ‘For there to be an effective partnership, developing a dialogue between civil society, government and business would be a valuable platform to make this engagement different from the others.’

S.H. Razavipour

Responding to an Economist article on a perceived battle between Israel and Iran for friends on the African continent, S.H. Razavipour stresses that suspicion around Iran's motives merely highlights Western hypocrisy.

Africa–China–US tripartite meetings

Adams Bodomo

Following the convening of a tripartite meeting between Africa, China and the US in Monrovia, Liberia, Adams Bodomo writes of his scepticism around the value of meetings premised on the notion that others should speak for Africa. It is grossly misplaced, Bodomo maintains, to expect 'investment technocrats' from two competing global powers to operate altruistically with Africa's social and economic development foremost in their minds.

Brij Tankha

The handling of Tibetan and Uighur protests, as well as concerns over environmental damage, and curbs on information and opposition have dented China’s image, raising questions about its role as a global power and how this will affect Asia and the world.

Khadija Sharife

Africa’s bargaining power has been increased, as Chinese interests open up alternatives to US and European investment in the continent, writes Khadija Sharife. But while China is free from colonial stigma and approaches resource-rich countries through the ethos of brothers-in-arms, a closer look at Beijing’s approach suggests that the benefits it brings to Africa do not include ‘justice and real development’.

Speaking to Turkish journalists ahead of a four-day official visit to Turkey, Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete has highlighted hopes that his trip will result in increased commercial and cultural ties.

The World Bank president Robert B. Zoellick just ended an African tour that took him to Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ethiopia. He told the African Union meeting in Addis Ababa that an estimated 64 million people worldwide will fall into extreme poverty because of the global financial meltdown crisis and some 30,000-50,000 babies may die in Sub- Sahara Africa in 2010. He later addressed African journalists via video conference, which was attended by The Independent's Patrick Kagenda.